Love Creeps

Love Creeps is a social satire that cleverly skewers everything from urban romance in the twenty-first century to obsessive-compulsive disorder, from twelve-step programs and the culture of victimhood to the curious inner-workings of social currency.

At the outset of the story, schlubby CPA Alan has been regularly stalking willowy NYC art dealer Lynn. Lynn has lost her zest for life and decides to imitate Alan’s ardent stalking behavior to reawaken her own desire. At random, she chooses Roland, an unpleasant French lawyer, as her victim. The three stalk each other around the city, while being observed by Ray, a disgraced psychologist who has been reduced to panhandling in the neighborhood of Lynn’s art gallery.

The direction of the show more obsessions changes several times over the course of the story, as does the see-sawing fortunes of the four main characters. Over and over, author Amanda Filipacchi demonstrates the hilariously counterintuitive nature of the modern mind - such as Roland’s being spurned by his stalker, Lynn, awakening his ardor or Lynn’s walking out on an important gallery opening, heightening the buzz as a result of her “mysterious” behavior or Alan’s delight at finding out he was the victim of childhood sexual molestation so that he has something to blame for his unhappiness. Ludicrous as these scenarios may seem, none is really so far from reality. Nothing is sacred – mental illness, addiction, depression, sexual misconduct, suicide, even murder. It’s all here and, in Filipacchi’s deft hands, funny as hell.

This is richly funny stuff. I read this on the train going to and from work each day and on many occasions, I had to hold myself back from laughing out loud. show less

In short: hilarious, unconventional and smartly written. Love Creeps is an eccentric tale of obsession and the need to find personal fulfillment. Lynn Gallagher is frightened that she no longer desires anything. So instead of being frightened by the man stalking her she becomes inspired. Jealous of her stalker's possession of a desire, Lynn decides to emmulate him and finds her own stalkee. The three lives become hilariously entwined and the narrative of this story flies by instead of creeping.

This was my introduction to Filipacchi, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very funny, very original story of three people stalking each other, interchangeably (i.e., the stalker becomes the stalk-ee). I read this a few years back, but I still remember the one scene where a murderer's victim, as he's dying from being poisoned, turns to the murder and says, as if surprised, "You're a bad man." That struck me as uproariously funny the first time I read it, and it still kind of makes me chuckle.

Kinda of hard to give this 5 stars, as it is not really that great. Gimmick after gimmick, but the thing is I kept on with it and enjoyed the whole thing. Not a good one to consider as real modern romance analysis, but enough typical situations you might think of yourself played out to the extreme end turns out to be ... ultimately satisfying. Funny, seductive.... a treat.

This book is almost as funny as its author intended, if you like absurd characters in unbelievable situations--which I do. Recommended for public libraries.

For a review, see: http://www.sascha.com/2006/06/love-them-creeps-review.html